Wilson-Raybould commits to reforms after meeting with Boushie family

Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould doubled down Tuesday on her commitment that the government will look to make concrete changes to the justice system after an all-white jury found the farmer who shot and killed an Indigenous youth in Saskatchewan “not guilty.”

“We’re going to be moving forward responsibly but we are moving forward…we will have more to say on specifics in the near future,” she said after meeting with Colten Boushie’s family in Ottawa.

The 22-year-old Indigenous man was killed when Gerald Stanley shot him in the head in 2016. Stanley was found not guilty on Friday, prompting a national outcry.

“This ain’t going to stop until something changes for the better,” Boushie’s mother Debbie Baptiste told reporters on Parliament Hill, where she’d met with the Prime Minister and a group of cabinet ministers, including Wilson-Raybould.

The Boushie family said they also have plans to meet with NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, Sen. Murray Sinclair and Sen. Kim Pate. They’ve also tried to schedule a meeting with Conservative MP Rosemary Falk, who represents the Boushie family’s riding, but haven’t been able to do so because of scheduling issues.

Wilson-Raybould described her meeting as “honest” and “emotional.” The conversation left the Boushie family feeling hopeful.

“Each person has promised to work with us to make concrete changes within (the) system. That’s exactly what we came here for,” said Jade Tootoosis, Boushie’s cousin.

“We stand here with the hope that there can be a difference — that no other family has to endure what we went through.”

The family was clear they want to see changes to the Jury Act.

“I think that there’s a broad consensus that the way a jury is currently picked is not necessarily fair,” said the family’s lawyer, Chris Murphy.

Wilson-Raybould confirmed Monday that the government will look into the issue of peremptory challenges, which currently give attorneys the ability to reject a certain number of jurors from a jury without explaining why. She also said she would look into the issue of jury selection more broadly.

Said Trudeau: “There’s very much a desire to work together on the path of reconciliation, on improving the system that is failing far too many Canadians.”

Since the verdict, their comments have promped some concern in the legal community that the politicians might be prejudicing an appeal or interfering in the court case.

Tootoosis disagreed with the characterization.

“The way I see it is that they’re human beings and they’re acknowledging that Colten was a human being,” she said.

While the promised concrete changes have yet to transpire, lawyer and Boushie family friend Eleanore Sunchild said the movement is only just getting started.

“I think that the momentum is just beginning. Hopefully now people will realize that these are serious concerns and this is a family that this truly happened to — and here is their story.”